Jon Gruden turns to Supreme Court as ex-Raiders HC makes last-ditch move in NFL lawsuit

Jon Gruden refuses to give up his fight against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell. The former NFL head coach has knocked at the door of the Supreme Court of Nevada as his last option.

The 60-year-old wants an en banc reconsideration of his lawsuit against the NFL for $60 million in unpaid wages remaining on his contract before he was allegedly “forced” to resign by the league. Under this consideration, Gruden’s case will be reviewed by all seven justices of the Nevada Supreme Court instead of two, as they did in May when his case was dismissed.

During the 2021 season, Gruden’s emails from a decade ago were uncovered and released to the media. The emails were from his broadcasting job with ESPN and contained misogynistic, racist, and homophobic slurs, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. A few days later, Gruden resigned as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

The NFL has been contending since the first suit filed in 2022 that this matter needs to be dealt with through arbitration and not in an open court as per the contract.

NFL: Las Vegas Raiders at Pittsburgh Steelers Source: Imagn

Gruden scored a victory in his favor when a trial court sided with him. However, the Nevada Supreme Court reversed the decision and agreed that the NFL’s claims in Gruden’s case should be settled inside and not in the public eye.

What is Jon Gruden banking on?

Generally, en banc reconsiderations are not granted unless the previous precedence has not been followed by the court or to address “a substantial precedential, constitutional or public policy issue.”

As per Sportico, to this end, Jon Gruden through his lawyers, has submitted that the NFL has failed to satisfy the court through its pieces of evidence. Also, Gruden’s contract was with the Las Vegas Raiders (then Oakland Raiders) and not the NFL; hence, the interpretation of the law should be according to California standards.

The controversial coach's lawyers also argued that the path of arbitration would be an “oppressive” one for him since he had no say or negotiating power in this respect when his contract was signed. The Nevada Supreme Court has not yet given a date for when they will consider Gruden’s application.